Almost
by RoseAngelx
Summary: Five Times the Villagers Ruined a Moment and One Time They Made One.


Hi all! So, during the past week or so I came across the concept of "Five and One" stories, which I fell in love with almost instantly. I decided that I simply had to try one of my own. I know I have two unfinished stories at the moment, but it's only a one-shot, and I figured I could take a short break from my multi-chapter fics to write one.

Hope you like it!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Harvest Moon_

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><p><strong><span>Almost<span>  
><strong>

**One **

"Phew!"

Claire rested her hoe on the ground, leaning on its handle and wiping her brow with an exhausted sigh, before looking over her handiwork. She had dedicated almost the entire day to planting the seeds for her lovely summer crops. This was a regular occurrence for the blonde farmer, and it had been for the past three years that she had lived in Mineral Town. She'd have to remove the remainders of the crops from the season before hand, till the soil, and then gather her seeds from the toolbox – she had stocked up on her first year and had a large collection of unused seed bags in her house – and then she would scatter them about the land. It was exhausting, especially during summer, but it meant that she got the hardest part of her work done on the first day of the season, and it became easier from there on in.

She looked at her watch, and grinned. There was still an hour and a half left of the annual Beach Day dog tournament. Her dog, Sam, was entering this year, but she had made sure that he would be going last, giving her time to work on her farm first before she went to the competition. Her farm came first. It was her home and her main source of income, after all.

The blonde rushed into her newly upgraded house, having a quick shower so she didn't smell disgusting, and then changed into a simple pair of jeans and a pale pink t-shirt. She looked over her appearance in the mirror briefly, and then, satisfied, rushed to the beach for the end of the tournament.

It was just about Sam's turn when she arrived, although that did end up being put off slightly. The moment she stepped onto the sand, she was all but barrelled over by a tan young gentleman in a purple bandana.

"Claire!" he exclaimed, embracing the girl in a bear-hug that had her lifted off the ground, spinning around in circles. "I've missed you!"

The blonde laughed, returning the embrace, and beaming when he put her down on the ground. "I've missed you too Kai!" she said. "How has your year been?"

"Same old, same old." Kai smiled his signature lopsided grin, placing his hand on the shorter girl's head and messing up her hair, causing her to squeak and bat his hand away. "What about you? Have you and Cliff _finally _gotten together yet?"

Claire shot him a playful glare, praying that her cheeks hadn't turned pink. "Cliff and I are just friends," she said. "You know that." Sure, she might have had a crush on the boy for almost two years now, but that was _completely _irrelevant.

"I'll take that as a no, then." Kai smirked at her, and then gestured to her dog, who was sitting patiently at the starting line like all good, obedient dogs should. "You're up."

The good thing about going last in a Frisbee competition, as far as Claire was concerned, was the fact that, if you won, you found out immediately, and there was always a running commentary while you threw your last shot. _"And this is it, folks, if Sam can catch this one he will win the competition...It's going to be a close one...He's running...running...jumping...and...HE'S CAUGHT IT! Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the Beach Day Frisbee Tournament 2010 is Sam, and his beautiful owner Claire!" _

There was practically no competition whenever Claire and Sam entered. The dog was raised on a large farm in which there was plenty of room to practice for Frisbee competitions such as these. The moment the dog caught the Frisbee, Claire was half-hugged, half-tackled by her friends on the beach, cheering her, and Sam's, names. Kai lifted her off the ground, placing her on his shoulder and bouncing her up and down lightly to the sound of the cheers. "Congratulations, Claire!"

The blonde farmer laughed, blushing lightly at the attention she was getting from her friends. She looked over at Sam, who was getting about as much attention as she was – Popuri was scratching the dog behind his ears, Rick standing behind her with a grin on his face, and Mary hand-feeding him some dog treats, telling the dog how well he did in that baby-talk voice.

Claire looked around again, and immediately Cliff caught her eye. The boy in brown was standing not far away from her, a small smile on his face. Sometimes, it became hard to believe that this was the boy that never spoke a word, until a bubbly blonde farmer dragged him out of his shell. Originally, it was only because Carter had asked her to talk to him, but as he, though painfully slowly, began to talk back, she seemed to see something in him, and that something became a reason to become his friend. _And to wish to be something more, _added the voice in her mind, but she ignored said voice.

Kai, clearly, had noticed the appearance of the boy as well, because suddenly he was letting Claire off his shoulder and pushing her in Cliff's direction. She shot a glare over her shoulder at the boy, because looking at Cliff, her smile softening slightly, but being absolutely genuine.

"Hey," she greeted.

Cliff smiled, and then embraced her in a gentle, friendly hug. "Congratulations."

"Thanks," she murmured. She let the hug last perhaps a little longer than necessary, before pulling back, and looking into his eyes. He had nice eyes. Really nice eyes. Not that she was thinking about that or anything...

She actually wasn't. She was thinking about the fact that those really nice eyes had just dropped down to her lips, and she was thinking about the way her stomach back flipped, and she was wondering what would happen if she just leaned forward slightly and...

"CLAIRE!"

If anything was about to happen between the two friends (yes, still just friends), it didn't get a chance to, because Claire was suddenly tackled by a particular pink-haired girl who had clearly been given ice-cream containing _way _too much sugar for her own good. "You won! You won! You won!"

"Yes, yes, I know," said Claire, laughing slightly, glancing over her shoulder at Cliff, or, at least, where Cliff had been. Said boy had already walked away, lost in the crowd. The blonde sighed slightly, and looked back to Popuri, who was bouncing up and down with excitement. She faked a smile, and was quickly lost in a conversation with Popuri about who-knows-what – Popuri tended to trail off a lot; it was always best to just play along.

Maybe she had imagined it, imagined that Cliff's gaze had fallen to her lips for a split second. She was probably seeing what she wanted to see. That would have made sense. She and Cliff were just friends. And, even if she didn't like it, she supposed that was all they'd ever be.

**Two**

"Let's play spin the bottle!"

_Please say no, please say no, please say no, please say no..._

"YEAH!"

Claire cringed at the sound of agreement that came from the group of young adults in the inn. It was Ann's idea to throw a party, just for them, and she had convinced her father to close down the inn and stay the night at someone's house so that they could have a sleepover without having to worry about waking him. The inn's only guests at that point in time were Kai, Cliff and Gray, and they were all to be at the party anyway.

Then Karen had gotten into the inn's alcohol supply – who knew she could pick locks? – and a nice, tame little sleepover had become a crazy party. It was only nine o'clock and a few of them were already drunk off their brains, these "few" being Karen, Ann, Rick, Kai, and, to everyone's surprise, Doctor Trent. Claire wasn't a fan of alcohol, and she had silently promised herself to be the designated sober person at the party, although she noticed that a few other people – Mary, Elli, and Gray – seemed to have come to the same decision. The rest of them had had a little to drink, some a little tipsy, but nothing too unusual.

Claire had amused herself for a while by simply watching the drunks. Originally, she was just making sure they weren't about to hurt themselves, but then it had become far too amusing for her to watch. Drunk Karen and Drunk Ann were rather similar; the two had taken to dancing on the table tops, laughing hysterically, and singing at the top of their lungs. Drunk Rick was positively hilarious – he became paranoid that the chickens were out to get him. Drunk Kai was...well, really, he wasn't that different to normal Kai. He just became _a lot _more confident, and loud, and he seemed to become a lot more physically comfortable with people as well. Kai was always a physical-touch kind of person, but Drunk Kai didn't really know boundaries. He wasn't touching any of the girls inappropriately, thank goddess, but usually he knew that people like Mary did not feel comfortable with being touched. The poor girl looked very, very uncomfortable when he had walked over, wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, and planted a big, sloppy kiss on her cheek.

Trent was, sadly, the most boring of the drunks. He ended up passing out.

Before getting drunk, Ann had made pizzas, and placed them in the oven to cook, and by then Karen had found the alcohol stash and it had led to dancing to loud music and a whole lot of insanity in the inn, before they had all tried to decide on what to do next, which led to Karen's idea of spin the bottle. So there they were, gathered around an empty wine bottle, waiting to play the game.

Claire had a secret; even at twenty-two years old, she had never been kissed. She had always clung onto the childish fantasy that her first kiss would be special and magical and would feel like fireworks exploding in her heart and all that stuff that she read in story books. So, naturally, she _did not _want to play spin-the-bottle; the idea of her first kiss being with some drunken guy or girl who she had no romantic interest in whatsoever was not a nice one.

Although, if she had been "forced" to kiss Cliff, she wouldn't have been complaining...

She tried getting out of it, as did Mary and Elli, but Karen and Ann _insisted _that they play. So Claire sat in the circle, cringing every time the bottle spun by her and praying it wouldn't stop.

She had to admit, watching the other people play the game was pretty interesting. Karen went first, and it landed on Ann. Neither was fazed by the fact that they were both straight girls – perhaps they were too drunk to care – and they kissed. When Rick had spun, it had landed on Karen as well (well, it had landed in between her and Claire, but the latter had shifted to the side to avoid being forced to kiss drunk-chicken-boy. Karen and Rick turned the kissing into a mini-make-out-session until they were finally pulled apart.

Kai's bottle had landed on Mary, but the librarian had scampered off to one of the inn's bathrooms before he got a chance to kiss her, and no amount of begging would coax her to come out. Kai looked disappointed at this, and Claire was not surprised – she was more than aware of the boy's little crush on the librarian. Drunk Kai quickly took over and ended up kissing Popuri instead.

Then it was Claire's turn. She considered pretending she needed to use the bathroom, but Mary still had not returned from said room (they had checked to see if she was all right, and she had replied that she was fine but would rather stay in there for the rest of the game), so that was out of the question. And then Karen began banging on the ground, chanting "Spin the bottle! Spin the bottle! Spin the bottle!" and she was quickly joined by the majority of the villagers. Claire eventually gave in, and, closing her eyes shut tightly, she spun the bottle as fast as she could manage.

No sooner had her hand left the bottle, however, did the timer go off in the kitchen, and Ann jumped to her feet. "Pizza's ready!" she shouted, and the hungry group was immediately on their feet and heading to the kitchen to get a slice before someone ate it all.

Claire couldn't resist looking over her shoulder, just before she left the room, watching as the bottle stopped spinning, pointing to the spot where Cliff had been.

**Three **

"Claire!"

The blonde farmer couldn't help but smile as she recognised Cliff's voice, hearing the boy running up the path behind her. She had just left the general store, after getting some food so she could so she could do some cooking sometime. Judging by the time of day, she figured Cliff had just left the church. She turned around, seeing the boy running towards her, one hand behind his back.

"Hey, Cliff!" she said cheerfully, smiling brightly at the boy that she was in lov- ahem, the boy she was friends with. _Friends_.

"Hey," he panted, taking a minute to catch his breath. Once he did, he straightened up quickly and smiled brightly at her. "Happy Birthday!"

He pulled his hand out from behind his back, passing the girl a square box wrapped in pink. Clearly he had wrapped it himself rather than getting the general store to do it for him; it was made obvious by the fact that the wrapping wasn't exactly the best. But it was the thought that counted, of course, and the thought that he had tried to wrap it himself was a very sweet one. "Aww, you remembered!"

"How could I forget?" Cliff smiled at the girl. "We've been friends for three years, after all."

Claire grinned at him, looking at the gift again. "I wonder what it is," she mused aloud, turning it in her hands, before grabbing one end of the paper and beginning to unwrap it. She tried to unwrap it carefully at first, but, after discovering that Cliff had practically attacked the thing with sticky-tape, she gave in, and just tore it open.

Inside was a box of chocolates – Claire's favourite, of course. She looked up to thank Cliff, but he held up his hand. He gestured to the chocolate box. "Open it."

She gave the boy a confused look, before carefully opening the box of chocolates. Her eyes widened slightly as she saw what was lying on top of the chocolates. It was only simple, but it was beautiful – an origami rose made of red and green paper. She picked it up, studying it with a soft smile on her face.

"I, uh, I wanted to get you a real one but I couldn't find any," he admitted, scratching the back of his neck. "So I found a book on origami in the library and I made that for you instead." He paused briefly, before adding, "I'm sorry if it's silly..."

"Cliff." Claire looked up at him, positively beaming. "It's beautiful. I love it." She closed the lid on the box, and placed it at her feet, along with the origami rose, so that she could throw her arms around the boy's neck and hug him. "Thank you."

Cliff's cheeks darkened slightly in colour, but he smiled and wrapped his arms around the girl's waist, returning the gentle embrace. "You're welcome."

She pulled back slightly from the hug to look at him, but kept her arms around his neck in the same way that he kept his own around her waist. And his eyes flickered to her lips again, and this time the girl was sure she had seen it. And then she was going to risk it, and she was leaning up...

"Happy Birthday to you!"

Claire pulled back as if Cliff was on fire, her cheeks feeling like they were, as she saw Kai, Popuri, Karen and Ann round the corner, singing.

"Happy Birthday to you!

"Happy Birthday dear Claire!

"Happy Birthday to you!"

The four cheered, Ann carefully passing a plate containing a single cupcake and a candle to Claire, who laughed slightly (though perhaps not quite as happily as she would have had), blowing out the candle. "Thanks guys, this is lovely."

She glanced over at Cliff briefly, catching his eye, and noticing that he was blushing. They had been that close...She shrugged the thought off, and looked back at the others. Kai was the only one who had seen the look. He looked suspiciously between the two, before grabbing onto Popuri's and Ann's wrists and saying, "Well, we best be off, bye!" before half-dragging the two back towards the inn, gesturing for Karen to follow.

Claire looked back towards Cliff, feeling her cheeks begin to heat up again, but by then the moment was gone, and Cliff was clearly too embarrassed to stay any more, as he babbled out something about having to go to the winery before darting off in said direction. And thus, Claire was left thinking of how close they had been.

**Four **

"So, has it happened yet?"

Claire looked over at Kai, who stood, cleaning the counter of the beach shack with a cloth. She frowned in confusion. "Has what happened?"

"You and Cliff," he answered, as if it were obvious. "Did you two _finally _kiss after we left yesterday?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "No. You guys successfully ruined that mo..." she all but slapped a hand over her mouth, blushing. "I mean, we're just friends! There is _nothing _going on between us!"

Kai sighed, putting away the cloth and giving the blonde farmer a disbelieving look as he picked up his mop and water bucket. "Please, Claire. I know you better than that. Believe me, the only people who don't know that you two like each other are, well, you two."

"We're friends, Kai," sighed Claire, looking at her now empty plate. "Not all guy and girl friendships end up in romance. You and I are best friends and we're not romantically interested in each other."

"Yes, but that is because you're interested in Cliff," he corrected, and Claire, realising that she couldn't win this argument by merely denying her crush on Cliff, decided to turn it on him instead.

"You mean because _you _are interested in Mary." She smiled slightly upon seeing Kai's cheeks redden just slightly. Kai was a flirt who had crushed on almost every girl in Mineral Town at one point, including Claire, but Mary was something different.

"Yes, yes, I like Mary. But you like Cliff. You can't deny that." She opened her mouth to argue, but Kai, who had come closer to her table to mop said area, shook his head. "Don't lie, Claire. I'm honest with you; please be the same to me."

The blonde farmer sighed in defeat. "Fine. Okay, I like Cliff. But nothing has or will happen between us."

"So make it happen." Kai glanced over at her as he continued to mop the shack. "The next time you see him, just kiss him. Trust me; he wants this as much as you do."

The traveller looked towards the window, and a slight smile came across his face. "Speak of the devil. He's on his way over right now. Use your chance, Claire."

"But..."

"Come on, Claire. You want him, he wants you, and he's far too shy to make it happen; _just do it_."

Claire glanced towards the window. "Fine."

The door to the shack opened, and, just as Kai had said, a certain brown-clothed boy entered. "Hey, Kai, have you seen...Oh, hey, Claire!"

"Hi Cliff." Even though she was internally freaking out about the decision that she was just about to kiss him, just seeing the boy brought a smile to her face. "Whatcha up to?"

Cliff held up a brown paper bag. "Ann thought you were working yourself too hard and made you lunch. I offered to bring it down for her." He glanced at her empty plate. "We didn't realise you would have already eaten."

Claire laughed and got to her feet to take the bag from him. "It's very sweet of both of you. Thank Ann for me."

"I will." Cliff smiled slightly at the girl. "I'll see you around then." He turned to leave. She glanced over at Kai, who was mopping the floor still, and he gave her a 'what are you waiting for?' look. "Cliff, wait."

The blonde farmer grabbed hold of his wrist to get him to turn back around, and he gave her a questioning look. She took a deep breath, feeling her cheeks heat up, and she, slowly, in case he wanted to pull back, leaned up...

_THUMP! _"OW!"

Claire pulled back suddenly, cheeks ablaze, and looked over at Kai, who, of course, was the cause of the interruption. Said boy had slipped on a puddle of water that he had created in his mopping of the shack, and fallen flat on his back. Claire immediately scampered over to see if he was all right. "Kai?"

"I'm fine," he muttered, sitting up. "I need a _slippery when wet _sign."

Claire only just heard Cliff mutter something about needing to get back before said boy hurriedly left the shack. Claire watched him go, heart sinking. "Perfect time to slip, Kai."

Kai shot his hands up in defence. "I'm sorry! It's not my fault! You should have just hurried it up and _kissed him_!"

Claire sighed, looking down at the floor. "This just isn't working," she sighed.

**Five **

Claire stood in front of her mirror, studying her outfit. The girl was almost always in overalls or loose jumpers, and dressed for comfort far more than she ever dressed for looks. However, that certainly was not to say that Claire was one who hated dressing up once in a while, and if the opportunity were to arise, she was more than willing to take it. And one such opportunity did arise, every summer, on the twenty-fourth day.

The fireworks festival was probably Claire's favourite summer festival. Fireworks had a way of taking her mind off everything. The loud explosions more or less stopped her from thinking of anything else, and the brightly coloured sparks that lit up the sky were entrancing. Not to mention that the weather on a summer's night was beautiful; it was warm enough to wear thin clothing, but it certainly wasn't hot. Claire's chosen outfit was an off-the-shoulder white t-shirt and a pale blue pleated skirt; simple, yet pretty. She held her hair back with a white headband so that the wind wouldn't blow it in her eyes, and then headed out to the beach. She made sure to let Sam inside her house first, and double-checked on the other animals on her farm, well aware that the fireworks frightened them if they were left outside on the night.

The beach was already crowded with familiar faces, eager to find a place on the sand that had a nice view of the fireworks display. She assumed that the dock would probably already be taken; it had undoubtedly the best view of the display, and it was usually the lucky first person to arrive that got said view. She couldn't help but glance over to see who it was, and smiled slightly upon seeing that there was only one person sitting there – Cliff. Surely Cliff would let her join him. Although, seeing him, this became not about sitting on the dock for the view, but sitting on the dock just to be with him. She walked across on the dock as silently as she could manage, and tapped his shoulder.

The boy jumped, clearly having been unaware of the girl's presence, and she saw his eyes light up (or maybe she imagined it, because she would have liked to see his eyes light up) when he saw her. "Claire."

"Heya," she greeted, smiling. "Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," he responded, shifting over to make room for her. The blonde sat beside him, hanging her legs over the side. She glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the villagers on the beach, seeing that they were all (at least, all the regulars for this particular festival) present. "The fireworks will probably start soon," she mused. It was about a minute later that they did, the first explosion drawing all their eyes to the sky, the chatter on the beach ceasing as it begun, save the occasional "Ooh" or "Ah" at a particularly pretty firework.

"Beautiful," Claire murmured, her blue eyes sparkling with the light of the fireworks that went off. Cliff glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, just subtly. "Yeah," he agreed softly. "Beautiful."

The display lasted twenty minutes, as always, and the last group of simultaneous fireworks had everyone staring in awe, leading to a round of applause once it was finished. The words "incredible", "beautiful", "magnificent", and "wow" could be heard repeatedly from the villagers on the beach. Claire leaned back on her hands, a content smile on her face. The girl promptly blushed when Cliff placed his hands down on the dock too, one of them landing on top of hers.

She expected him to pull his hand away immediately, but, to her surprise, he didn't. Instead, he slowly, hesitantly curled his fingers around her hand, glancing at her as if he was unsure if she was okay. His brown eyes met her blue ones, and she felt her heart skip a beat, because that same look was there; the look in his eyes the few days before, when she had been that close to kissing him.

She felt her cheeks heat up, and her gaze briefly dropped to his lips. _It's going to happen this time, _she thought, as she started to lean in, slowly, and he did to. _This is actually going to..._

_BANG! _

Claire squealed girlishly, which made her blush in embarrassment, and she jumped in her spot, almost falling off of the dock as she did. Cliff grabbed hold of her arm to steady her, and the two looked up to see the stray firework that had effectively ruined their moment. She looked back to Cliff, who looked particularly flustered as he scampered to his feet. "I, uh, I-I better go," he stammered, and, without waiting for a response, he turned and swiftly headed away from the beach. And Claire sighed, looking out across the water and wondering if maybe it wasn't meant to be.

**One **

"This is getting ridiculous."

It was Kai's last day in Mineral Town, and, as such, the younger villagers had felt it fit to spend the day relaxing on the beach. And it would have been a very relaxing day, had a certain group of villagers have not been so frustrated by the _tension _between Claire and Cliff. It was as clear as day that they _both _wanted to kiss each other, so why could they not see it? Why were they just standing there talking as friends, when they both wanted so badly to be something more?

Kai looked around at the group of people that he was talking with – Karen, Mary, Gray, and Ann. "Please tell me I'm not the only one getting annoyed with those two." He cocked his head in Cliff and Claire's direction.

Karen shook her head. "It's ridiculous. It's been an entire season; you'd think by now they would have gotten their acts together and _finally _admitted their feelings."

Ann nodded in agreement. "What are we going to have to do? Lock them in a room and order them to admit their feelings?"

"Well it doesn't look like they're getting anywhere without a push," commented Kai, and a smirk came across Karen's face. "Maybe if I just push Claire just a little bit closer to him one of them will get the hint..." she mused aloud as she stood up. Mary looked about to protest – it wasn't very nice to push people, physically, but Karen was already heading over to the water's edge where the two stood.

The small group watched as the young woman waded in the water a bit, as if that was here only reason to have gone down there. But as she turned to head back up to the beach, she placed her hand on Claire's back, and gave the girl a quick push.

Her aim had merely been to force the young farmer to stumble closer, hoping that closeness between the two would make one of them actually do something, but that didn't quite go as planned. Claire was small and light, and clearly already off-balance, because the quick push from Karen caused her to trip and fall, straight into Cliff. The boy, having not expected the sudden force, had no time to steady himself, and he instinctively wrapped his arms around Claire's waist, the two of them falling back onto the sand with Claire landing lying on top of him. Although, Karen's plan had been partially successful, she noticed, as their faces ended up mere millimetres apart.

Claire turned a shade of red similar to that of the ripe tomatoes she had harvested the day before, placing her hands on the sand either side of his head, planning on pushing herself off of him. "I-I-I'm so sorry, Cliff, I didn't me..."

But then Cliff removed one of his arms from around her waist and cupped her jaw, and he leaned up those few millimetres between them and pressed his lips against hers.

Karen resisted her urge to jump in the air and cheer, but she did hear Kai exclaim "FINALLY!" from his place about a metre or so away. They saw Claire stiffen at first, and if it were possible, her cheeks turned a shade darker, but then she was kissing back, letting her eyes fall shut.

They were both blushing darkly when they separated, a few seconds later. They stared at each other, completely speechless, until Cliff spoke, a slight smile on his face. "About time."

And Claire laughed, and clambered off of him, helping the boy to his feet so that she could wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him again.

OoO

Kai stood on the edge of the boat as it began to move away from the shore, waving to his friends who had gathered at the beach to say goodbye. He felt a grin break out across his face as he looked at Cliff and Claire, who stood with their hands entwined together, brighter smiles on their faces than had ever been before. "Took them long enough."

When he returned the following summer, he'd need a master plan on getting Cliff to give her the blue feather, because if it took them that long to just kiss, they were certainly going to need help when it came to a proposal. But that's another story.

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><p>Hope you liked it. Reviews make me happy. :)<p> 


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